At the opening keynote of Intel Developer Forum, Paul Otellini, chief executive officer of Intel Corp. said that the demand towards higher-performance mobile devices from the end-users will spur growth across both in the client hardware and cloud hardware segments. Naturally, the next-gen devices will bring a number of never-before-seen features and qualities, e.g., devices based on code-named Haswell chips will deliver 10-days of standby battery life.

"Computing is in a constant state of evolution. The unprecedented demand for computing from the client devices to the cloud is creating significant opportunity for the industry. Intel is innovating and working with our partners to deliver computing experiences that are more mobile, secure and seamless. I'm excited about the new experiences that will be created across a range of devices, and we're just getting started," said Mr. Otellini, describing the opportunities and challenges facing Intel and the industry.

The chief executive officer of Intel predicted that lighter, sleeker and higher-performance ultrabook systems will provide the most satisfying and complete computing experience. Mr. Otellini highlighted the broad enabling work between Intel and Microsoft, and pointed to the future opportunities that Windows 8 will present across tablets, hybrid devices and new form factors such as ultrabooks.

Paul Otellini also described the new class of platform power management in development for the 2013 "Haswell" products for ultrabooks. The advances in silicon technology and platform engineering are expected to reduce idle platform power by more than 20 times over current designs without compromising computing performance. Mr. Otellini said he expects that this design change, combined with industry collaboration, will lead to more than 10 days of connected standby battery life by 2013. The advancements will aid in delivery of always-on-always-connected computing where ultrabooks stay connected when in standby mode, keeping the e-mail, social media and digital content up-to-date.

Looking further into the future, the head of Intel predicted that platform power innovation will reach levels that are difficult to imagine today. Intel's researchers have created a chip that could allow a computer to power up on a solar cell the size of a postage stamp. Referred to as a "Near Threshold Voltage Core," this Intel architecture research chip pushes the limits of transistor technology to tune power use to extremely low levels.